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Daily Archives: May 18, 2011

When the Jabob Damask was finished, I unceremoniously stuffed it in my suitcase and went to bed. I had an early flight and I just didn’t want to be that crazy lady who shows up for work all exhausted and weird because she stayed up blocking lace. (Not that Tina and the other Sock Summit team members wouldn’t get it, but it’s still a good policy.) I remembered on the way to the airport that I’d forgotten my blocking pins, and sent Tina and email that said "bring pins". I landed, we drove, we got settled, and the next day I woke up chock full of blocking plans. The shawl went into the sink for a warm bath, and a few hours later I rinsed it, trotted it over to the bed, and asked Tina for the pins. She foraged in her stuff for a bit, then gave me about twenty pins.

That wasn’t going to cut it, and there’s no way that you do this much work for a shawl and then half-ass the blocking, so we managed to convince ourselves that a drive to Port Hadlock wasn’t just something that would distract us from our work, but a mission that was noble and necessary. We would go quickly. We drove off, and 15 minutes later were walking into Dinah’s Yarn Shop declaring a blocking emergency. (They’re charming in that shop, let me tell you.) We were in and out with the pins in less than 5 minutes, and blocking the minute we were back.

I’m so very happy with how it turned out. A completely satisfying project. I started with a Jacob fleece – acquired when I told Beth at the Spinning Loft that I was in the market for one, and she promptly pulled this lilac one out of her garage. (I am now convinced that Beth’s garage holds no end of wonders.) I separated all the locks into individual colours… then washed, carded and spun them all separately.(For those of you who care, I spun the singles long draw, then plied it to get a 2-ply. It’s slightly underspun and overplied for bounce, and boy does it have it.) Then I chose what I think was the perfect pattern – Damask, by Kitman Figueroa, who has nothing wrong with her brain at all. Great pattern. The finished shawl is exactly as I dreamed it. Exactly. It’s wingspan is about 140cm (that’s about 56 inches), and the line down the centre back is 63cm – or 25", which is just about what I was hoping for. It is soft, and delicate, and sturdy all at once. I can’t stop looking at it, or holding it, or squeezing it in my hand, and feeling the bounce and cushiness of the yarn. It is perfect, and it is exactly the reason I learned to spin. That shawl started in my head as an idea – and now it exists precisely the way I wanted it to – and I made it myself. I feel really, really clever and happy.